Today marks 121 years since the birth of Nikolai Nikolaevich Turoverov, a renowned Cossack poet and officer of the Life Guards Ataman Regiment, who became a symbol of Russian emigration. He lived on his native land for only 20 years, but loved it until the end of his days. He was called the Don Esenin, and his poignant poems brought tears.

Nikolai Nikolaevich was born in the ancient Cossack capital, now known as Starocherkasskaya. He graduated from the Kamensk Real School, where he began writing his first poems. There he met the ensign Chernetsev, who had come on leave due to injury; this meeting proved to be fateful. At 17, Nikolai went to the front of World War I, where he distinguished himself and, after accelerated officer courses, received the rank of junior ensign.

In November 1917, when the Bolsheviks came to power, 18-year-old Turoverov joined Chernetsev's detachment. This detachment, nicknamed the 'Don Ambulance', existed for only two months and became legendary. In early February, after the death of the wounded and ill Colonel Chernetsev, Turoverov narrowly escaped execution and participated in the Steppe Campaign. He then fought in the Don Army on the Tsaritsyn front and in Crimea, was wounded four times, rose to the rank of senior ensign, and commanded a machine gun team in his regiment, covering the evacuation of the Russian army from Sevastopol.

The poet emigrated with his wife Yulia Grekova, a former nurse in a white hospital. Their daughter Natalia was born abroad. They first ended up on the island of Lemnos, where Cossack units were stationed, then in Serbia and France. Contrary to the myth of a banking career, Turoverov worked as a lumberjack, loader, and taxi driver. At the same time, he wrote poems that became a breath of fresh air for the émigrés. Bunin himself highly valued the young poet, who became the soul of emigration.